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| December 1 |
Sometimes I have brilliant ideas. Most times I have half-baked ideas. This Christmas I had what I thought was a
brilliant idea that, after a few days,
made me think it was definitely one of my more
half-baked brainstorms. I
decided that I would do a visual Advent Calendar on Facebook. A photo a day combined with a Bible
verse. I decided to use only Bible
verses—no catchy poems, no quotes to bring a tear to your eye—simply Bible
verses about the birth of Jesus. How
hard could that be? I’d taught Sunday
School and handled the devotions over the years. Goodness, I’d even written a Christmas
program one year about Mary’s view of the birth. Piece of cake.
The first few days were fine. But I quickly ran through those verses we all
know. Then I got into “hmm, that’s not
too interesting” or “that’s not going to go with any photo.” Next was the dilemma that I couldn’t seem to
match the photos in my stash to match the verses I found and so I was taking more
photos that still didn’t match anything.
This was becoming a major focus for each day for me.
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| December 2 |
What happened? I read
the story of the birth of Christ. Over
and over, one book of the Bible and then another. Trying to find a photo to match what the verses
said to me made me read further and deeper the story that I had heard and
lightly read every year of my life. I
found my mind wandering during the days leading up to Christmas as I thought of
the characters in this reality story—what did they think? What did they feel? Was it cold? Was it warm? How clean was the stable? Did Mary cry because there was no familiar
woman with her? Did her back hurt after
riding the donkey all day? Did Joseph,
in his frustration to find a place for Mary, get angry or huffy with the
innkeepers? What did the wise men talk
about? What did the shepherds say to
each other? Not deep thoughts—but suddenly
they all became very real to me and were subconsciously in my mind every day.
Whether anyone else enjoyed the Advent Calendar, I’m not
sure—but it kept me grounded this year.
I was reminded every day of the month of December about the true story
of Christmas.
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| December 3 |
I saw a tv interview this
week and a lady was explaining WHY she was a Christian. She said she was CAPTIVATED by the
story. The story that God came down to
us as a baby. Truly—read the
story. May the spirit of God with us
CAPTIVATE you.
